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Pratt & Stafford, KS Joint Exploration Projects – 24,000 Prospect Acres

Pratt & Stafford, KS Joint Exploration Projects – 24,000 Prospect Acres

October 11, 2023

Over the past 6 months, Herman L. Loeb LLC has partnered with Thomas Garner Inc. (Parachute Project & Foley Project) and Prater Oil Company (Horace Project) as a non-op working interest owner for a combined 24,000 acre exploration play located in Pratt and a portion of Stafford County, KS. The Parachute project includes approximately 11,000 acres targeting multiple Lansing – Kansas City intervals among other deeper intervals, and has completed the 3D seismic activity in May.  Geophysical interpretation is ongoing and we expect to possibly drill 2-3 initial test wells in 2023 for further evaluation.  The Horace project is approximately 6,000 acres also targeting multiple Lansing – Kansas City intervals with 3D seismic activity slated for fall 2023 with possible test wells beginning in early to mid-2024.  Well depths are expected to be in the 4000-4400 feet range and should not require fracture stimulations.  The Foley Project will be approximately 7,000 acres with the final land leasing and 3D seismic planning ongoing with an expectation this will take place in 2024 and into 2025.  These projects are in the vicinity of prolific producers / fields with current 3D seismic technology being used to locate bypassed or missed opportunities.  Sterling Drilling Company will be the drilling contractor for all wells in the projects.  Both Thomas Garner and Prater Oil are local to the area and very familiar with the history and geology of the county.

 

Pratt County has produced nearly 100,000,000 BBLs of oil over the years (nearly 400,000 BBLs in 2022).  The majority of the oil has been produced from the Arbuckle, Simpson, and Lansing series formations.  It is also typical of oil wells to also produce marketable associated natural gas (175,000,000 mcf cumulative sales to date).  One of HLL’s non-op interest wells drilled in late 2013 has produced 134,000 BO & 73,000 MCF.  HLL also operates 4 other leases in the county which have produced a total of 430,000 BO from 10 wells all in the Lansing series.

Southwest Indiana Exploration Project – 37,000 Mineral Acres

On February 2, 2023 Herman L. Loeb LLC, as a majority owner (75%) in partnership with KWR Ventures, completed a purchase from CNX Resources Corporation that provides the oil and gas mineral ownership to approximately 37,000 undeveloped acres (≈58 square miles) in Gibson, Pike, and Warrick counties located in southwestern Indiana.  The entire acreage block is generally surrounded by several historical oil field discoveries in the basin that have each produced an average of 1.8 million bbls of crude oil dating back to the 1940’s up to present times.   The acreage position has been unavailable to oil exploration endeavors as it was owned by and restricted by the surface coal mining operations of Peabody Energy and Black Beauty Coal Company for the past 80+ years until now.  This exciting and unique opportunity contains 3 potentially distinct exploration prospects, some of which may be leased out to other interested parties in the future.  The primary objective for us will be to explore the Pennsylvanian and Mississippian sands which lay in the 1200-to-2000-foot depths as one of the prospects.  The second prospect includes the deeper potential from middle Mississippian carbonates, Devonian limestones, and Silurian reefs.  The third prospect would include unconventional gas exploration in the New Albany & Maquoketa shales similar to the Point Pleasant / Utica shales found in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The initial phase to begin by mid-2023 will include executing 50+ miles of 2D seismic allowing correlation between producing fields in a 360-degree approach to help identify the first round of test well locations.  We anticipate drilling at least 6 wildcat wells in 2023 which will be followed by additional geological mapping and seismic activity to further define and hopefully lead to a potential field discovery later in 2024.  The project will be added to the Company portfolio as a long-term asset play.

Mertilla-Dunham Horizontal Project Drills 2nd Test Well

Atlas Drilling LLC’s Rig #7 spuds in the Whitaker-Schwab #1H-8 well as the 2nd of 3 originally planned experimental test wells associated with the joint project in Meade County, KS.  Implementing learnings from the 1st successful test well (UMCC #1H-17) completed nearly 10 months ago, the project team has changed drilling technology, lateral design, and completion techniques in an effort to further improve cost performance and optimization of ultimate recovery potential.  The unconventionally drilled #1H-8 well will have an average vertical depth of 5,300’ and a lateral length of 4,800’ (10,100’ total length) in a previously proved yet undrained 320 acre conventional drilling unit.  Along with drilling contractor Atlas Drilling LLC, Halliburton has been selected as the primary service provider for directional drilling services, bits, mud, cement, and completion design.  Hadaway Consulting & Engineering will provide well planning services, onsite drilling and completion supervision, and Geosteering assistance.  It is estimated that the well will incur 17 drilling days and 7 days for completion leading into an anticipated first production date by mid 4Q19.

Spivey-Grabs-Basil Field Asset Acquisition

Herman L. Loeb LLC is pleased to announce it has completed the purchase of 43 well-maintained leases containing 79 active producers (representing ≈7% of the field’s well count) with operations located across the 174 square mile Spivey-Grabs-Basil field in south central Kansas.  The acquisition represents approximately 375 boepd (≈14% of the current field production) derived from mature, low decline rate producing assets mostly drilled in the late 1980’s through early 2000’s still under primary recovery operations.  The large, three county oil and gas field has been expanded and redeveloped multiple times since its initial discovery in 1949, producing over 72 million barrels of oil and 844 billion cubic feet of gas in its life.  The company officially took over operations on July 1, 2019.

Company’s First Kansas Horizontal Well

Early successful results are in for the UMCC #1H-17 horizontal well (Mertilla-Dunham Prospect) located in Meade County, KS.  The UMCC #1H-17 is the first attempted and completed Kansas horizontal well that Herman L. Loeb LLC has actively participated in.  The well, with a currently set pumping capacity of 300 BBL of total fluid per day, has averaged 260 BOPD & 40 BWPD (87% oil cut) during its first week of post-completion production, and it is realizing an increasing oil cut percentage each day.  Situated in the previously proved but largely undeveloped 18,000 acres Mertilla-Dunham Southeast prospect originally generated by McCoy Petroleum, the well has a vertical depth of 5300’ and a horizontal lateral length of 4500’ (9825’ total length) in the upper Mississippian series.  Lease operator McCoy Petroleum along with American Warrior and Herman L. Loeb LLC are the majority working interest partners in this initial test well.  Sterling Drilling Company (Pratt, KS) served as the drilling and well service contractor for the well which was completed using a 16 stage frac design.  The well, spudded on July 10, 2018, achieved first production on November 19, 2018, following several weeks of weather and site access delays leading up to its completion.

Prior to the new field discovery, Mertilla-Dunham leaseholds were purchased in part by Loeb in 2012 with full 3D seismic acquired shortly thereafter. The first 13 vertical wildcat wells were drilled between 2013 and 2014 by the prospect participants, achieving a 77% success rate.  The vertical well 30 Day IP’s ranged from 30 BOPD to 115 BOPD with an average above 75 BOPD.  The average estimated recoverable reserves (EUR) by each vertical well was calculated at approximately 38,000 BBLs with a range of 15,000 to 124,000 BBLs between the first 10 successful completions.  With declining oil prices the project was shelved for 3½ years before the drilling of UMCC #1H-17 well.  The prospect partners elected to experiment with the development of the field using horizontal technology for economic benefit (reduced capital and increased productivity).  Theoretically, each nearly 1 mile long lateral horizontal well may produce the equivalent of 9-12 vertical wells at 45%-50% of the total capital cost.  Conservative EUR’s per horizontal well in this field is estimated at 250,000 BBLs with higher end potential near 375-400,000 BBLs.  The prospect has approximately 40 more proved undeveloped horizontal locations and up to 30 unproved undeveloped horizontal locations remaining.  A second experimental horizontal well is already planned for execution in early 2019.

New Herman L. Loeb LLC Website

Herman L. Loeb LLC is pleased to welcome you to our brand new website. We hope you find the new website to be a useful source of information. The website will continue to evolve as the company continues to seek new opportunities for growth, and through the implementation of new technology.